Reviving the Mid-East Peace Process: Obstacles and Opportunities
Mr. Levy has an extensive background in various Israeli efforts toward peace. Following the recent war in Lebanon, he was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative calling for an immediate resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He served on the negotiating team to the Oslo B Agreement under Prime Minister Rabin and as a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations. Later, he worked as senior policy advisor to Minister of Justice Yossi Beilin and during the Barak Government as special advisor and head of the Jerusalem Affairs unit. Prior to joining the Century Foundation he served as director of policy planning and international efforts at the Geneva Campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Bio
Daniel Levy
Daniel Levy is a senior fellow and director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation and a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. He was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative and prior to joining The Century Foundation was directing policy planning and international efforts at the Geneva Campaign Headquarters in Tel Aviv.
In 2003, he worked as an analyst for the International Crisis Group Middle East Program. During the Barak Government, he worked in the Prime Minister's Office as special adviser and head of the Jerusalem Affairs unit under Minister Haim Ramon. From March 2000 to March 2001, he worked as senior policy adviser to former Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin, where he was responsible for coordinating policy on various issues including peace negotiations, civil and human rights, and the Palestinian minority in Israel. He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and previously served on the negotiating team to the "Oslo B" Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Rabin.
He received a Bachelors and Masters with Honors from King's College, Cambridge; he was awarded prizes in Social and Political Science and was Scholar of the College. He has published extensively in a broad range of publications including Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Boston Globe, United Press International, The American Prospect, The International Herald Tribune, TPMCafe.com, and The Evening Standard.
He also makes laudatory references to the Oslo process while glossing over key facts. He makes it sound as if Israel and Palestinian leadership were in equal noncompliance in their implentation of the agreements made under Oslo. This is factually, demonstrably inaccurate. Israel delivered- in varying degrees, and sometimes not far enough- on every commitment they made under Oslo. Arafat and his people failed to deliver on every, single commitment they made under Oslo.
A great talk but needs to be viewed with certain caveats. In the 21st and 22nd minutes Levy discussed the "infrastructure of terror" in the Arab mind. He seems to want to refer-rather narrowly- to the infrastructure of grievances that he argues form the foundation of the terrorist rationale. What he does not acknowledge is that the mental infrastructure of terror does not begin and end with those grievances. It begins with a militant ideology that has sound textual foundation in the Koran which calls for and justifies violent remedies to political problems.